Photos from Mackay Airport Last Sunday - Wings & Wheels Plus Some Great Plane Spotting!

After a very wet and miserable couple of days, it was great to see the sun come out on Sunday 17 August for us to travel to Mackay Airport to check out the Mackay Aero Club's Wings & Wheels Day.

It was a great day, with a good steady stream of people venturing to the Aero Club on the General Aviation (GA) side of Mackay Airport to check out a great variety of displays including several single and twin engine vintage and other GA aircraft, model aircraft and aircraft engines, along with a nice variety of classic vehicles, motorbikes, and custom-built cars from the local drag racing club.

There was also constant movement around the Aero Club's parking apron with aerobatic and scenic aircraft and helicopter flights operating during the day - including by CQ Warbird Adventures' Yakovlev Yak 52 VH-YAF and Horizon Airways' recently acquired Gippsaero GA-8 Airvan VH-NLF.

Highlights included seeing the Mackay Tiger Moth Museum's two De Havilland DH-82A Tiger Moths - 1943-build VH-IVN and 1942-build VH-CYA - both on static display and in the air.

Also the dramatic arrival of the Central Queensland Rescue Helicopter Service (CQ Rescue) Bell 412EP VH-CQJ.  It was open for display for only a short time before it was 'tasked' to Hamilton Island.

The local Airport Firefighters were also showing off their newly acquired fire truck.

In all it was a fantastic day, with lots of money raised for CQ Rescue, and what was even better was the Aero Club's parking apron was close to the main Runway at Mackay Airport making for some fantastic plane spotting opportunities.  Needless-to-say, I took full advantage of the opportunity to get up close to some of the arrivals and departures during the morning - including Jetstar's colourful Airbus A320 VH-VFN - which still wears special 100th aircraft / 100 millionth passenger in the Jetstar Group fleet stickers - departing to Brisbane JST883.

A little later, Tigerair (Tiger Airways) Australia Airbus A320 VH-VNR was photographed arriving and departing the scheduled TGW744/745 service from and back to Melbourne (Tullamarine) Airport.

And finally, Virgin Australia Boeing B737-800 VH-VUN was photographed landing on Mackay Airport's Runway 14 as VOZ607 from Brisbane.  Notably, VH-VUN has recently been repainted into the new Virgin Australia livery.

In all it was a fantastic day, and thanks must go to the Mackay Aero Club for hosting such a wonderful event!